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n00b starting an unRAID server, need some advice...


mlounsbury

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So after a lot of reading I've decided to build myself an unRAID server.  Last week I had picked the parts that I was going to purchase, only to find out that the BioStar TA785G3HD is out of stock just about everywhere.  Newegg has their Pre-Black Friday sale, right now there's 65.5 hours left in the sale.  They have this other BioStar board that looks good but wanted to see if others felt the same way.  I did a search of the forum but didn't find any other posts about it.

 

Anyone have any thoughts?  It's this one:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138197&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL112210&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL112210-_-EMC-112210-Index-_-AMDMotherboards-_-13138197-L05A

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Probably not the best help here,

 

Quite new and still in the prepping stage here myself, I came across a compatibility list somewhere on the Wiki but cant see it now.

Will try and find the link for you, but would be interested in seeing your hardware list you have chosen.

 

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@stradle - I've been reading everything on the site, including the Hardware Compatibility, but this one wasn't listed on there.  To me it looks like it meets all of the standards and requirements, but sometimes it helps to have another set of eyes looking at it.

 

@mbryanr - here's the rest of the components I chose:

 

Case - Antec Nine Hundred

Processor - AMD Sempron 140

Memory - G.SKILL NS 2GB DDR3 1333

Hard Drives - Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB (will get the jumpers for the pins)

Power Supply - Cooler Master M600 600W

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Awesome, thanks!  I just ordered the motherboard.  I was told by the boss (my wife) that I have to wait until next week to order the rest because she gets 3% back from newegg next week on one of her rebates sites.  At least this fits in with the rest of the components I was going to order, plus I'm saving $20 over the other Biostar board.

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I'm going to increase the drives one at a time when I have money and the wife allows.  I know I can do some 4 to 3's or maybe even 5 to 3's in there.  I don't know if I'm going to hit 20 or not.  I went with the 600W because of the reviews on newegg were mostly positive.  I was steering away from the ones on the PSU page (http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=PSU#Suggested_Purchase_List) because the recommended one for the budget build didn't have a good rating on newegg.  I generally buy stuff because of the rating.  I also liked the fact that it was a modular PS.  If you can recommend something better I'd certainly be open to other options.

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The Corsair HX/TX/VX series PSU's are consistently highly rated.  Raj's recommendation (Corsair CMPSU-650TX) is about as solid as they come.  The CX430 is taking some hits due to the fan being sleeved not ball bearing as advertised, so there are some concerns about longevity with the fan.  It seems the manufacturing move away from Seasonic (who built the old CX400) has also introduced some reliability and performance concerns as well.  However, the HX/TX/VX lines remain good performers. 

 

CMPSU-650TX vs. M600

 

The main differences from that comparison are max efficiency, modular vs. not, and the number and type of connectors.  Efficiency is hard to compare accurately without a thorough bench test results to see efficiency vs. load, so the best you can say is the M600 might give you an edge on energy costs.  Obviously you'll save on clutter with the M600's modular cables.  Additionally, the M600 has 9 SATA power connectors vs. the 8 on the 650TX so you might have slightly less clutter added from molex-SATA adapters. 

 

Looking at the actual current ratings shows that the 650TX has a 53A (636W) rating on the 12V rail while the M600 is rated for 40A (480W).  I forget the spinup current draw of a green drive, but I want to say around 2A.  With the M600 you may run into problems with a large number of drives in your system.  If you plan to limit yourself to 12-15 drives the M600 should be adequate.  If you plan on a larger server, the 650TX would be the way to go. 

 

Long story short, either PSU should be good quality, but the 650TX will buy you some extra wiggle room and can help avoid running into a PSU overload situation down the road when expanding.

 

 

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What rich said is correct.  2A for green drives and 3A for 7200rpm drives is the rule of thumb.

 

I've used the CX430 models without any problems, though of course I can't address the longevity concerns as they haven't even been out for a year yet.

 

Modular cables are always a nice luxury, however I tend to prefer to save money on non-modular models.  Your choice, though.

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